Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares on Thursday strongly denied that Madrid had forced Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia to sign a document recognising the victory of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the recent elections, as a leading member of Spain’s Partido Popular had previously claimed.
On Thursday, Esteban González Pons, MEP and Partido Popular (PP) vice-secretary for institutional policy, said that the Spanish government was “implicated in a coup d’état” in Venezuela and accused it of being “complicit” in Chavismo’s “blackmail” of Edmundo González Urrutia to leave his country and go into exile.
“I demand that Mr Feijóo (the leader of Partido Popular/EPP) disavow the (PP) MEP who has slandered Spain and accuses Spain of things that are absurd but tremendously insulting to our country”, Albares told a press conference after attending a meeting in Brussels with his British counterpart David Lammy and European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic on the future status of Gibraltar.
González Pons’ accusations referred to a video message released by the opposition leader on Wednesday in which he claimed that, before fleeing Venezuela, government officials forced him to sign a document at the Spanish embassy in Caracas recognising the ruling that gave President Nicolás Maduro victory in the 28 July election in exchange for safe passage out of the country.
González Pons also told private radio station esRadio on Thursday morning that he was “disgusted”, “ashamed” and “outraged” by González Urrutia’s words.
But Madrid’s reaction was harsh.
On Thursday, Albares demanded that the leader of the PP, the main opposition force in parliament, “immediately repudiate” the “slander” against the Spanish government launched by González Pons.
The senior official also asked the PP to “please respect the decision taken by Edmundo González (to leave Venezuela) and to understand the very difficult circumstances in which he had to make it.”
González Pons also accused former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE/S&D) of being the “great plotter” of the operation to facilitate the opposition leader’s departure from Venezuela.
Madrid denied any political negotiations.
“Spain has absolutely nothing to do with any kind of negotiation, with any kind of document that may have taken place between Edmundo González and the Venezuelan government,” Albares added.
International pressure mounts against Maduro’s regime
Tensions between Madrid and Caracas have escalated recently after the Spanish parliament passed a non-binding resolution on 11 September calling Madrid to recognise Edmundo González as Venezuela’s elected president.
The European Parliament also took a symbolic step on Thursday by recognising González as the elected president of the South American country.
On 22 August, Venezuela’s Supreme Court confirmed Maduro’s presumed victory in the elections, although several international observers, including the Carter Centre, said the process lacked sufficient transparency.
On Tuesday, a United Nations mission of experts issued a report denouncing Maduro’s “arbitrary exercise” of power. The UN experts’ report highlighted “human rights violations, including crimes against humanity” since 2019 as part of a plan to repress the opposition.
Meanwhile, the EU’s head of diplomacy, Josep Borrell, this week added his voice to those describing Maduro’s regime as “dictatorial”.
Venezuela’s opposition leader has been in exile in Spain since 8 September.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)
Source: euractiv.com
